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Unofficial Halloween Writing Contest
atnquick
Member Posts: 51 Arc User
EDIT: Shutup Wesley is running a Christmas themed event with amazing rewards for their different competitions, including writing. If you liked this contest (or maybe missed it) why not check theirs out?
Greetings Captains,
Until the end of this month (oct 31st) I will be holding a writing and screenshot contest(you can find the screenshot contest here)
The theme is Halloween.
Maybe a story of surreal or scary place or a run in with the unexplained and creepy, or maybe about the ghost roaming the lower decks of your starship. Feel free to play with the theme and surprise me.
Rewards:
The two best entries will be awarded a set of Elachi ships:
Anyone that enters the screenshot or writing competition with a valid entry, will also enter the drawing for one random winning of a temporal science bundle:
Participation:
All submissions must be posted before oct 31st 12pm UTC (5pm PST). You may edit and modify your submission up to this time.
Every valid participation requires that your in-game handle is clearly present in your submission (preferably at the beginning or the end of the post). If you forget to post your handle, please edit your submission so it's not missed.
Your submission must be something you've made yourself.
Rules:
I won't be strict with the exact word count, but please aim for something that I can process in a reasonable amount of time.
I'm looking forward to seeing your submissions!
Greetings Captains,
Until the end of this month (oct 31st) I will be holding a writing and screenshot contest(you can find the screenshot contest here)
The theme is Halloween.
Maybe a story of surreal or scary place or a run in with the unexplained and creepy, or maybe about the ghost roaming the lower decks of your starship. Feel free to play with the theme and surprise me.
Rewards:
The two best entries will be awarded a set of Elachi ships:
Anyone that enters the screenshot or writing competition with a valid entry, will also enter the drawing for one random winning of a temporal science bundle:
Participation:
All submissions must be posted before oct 31st 12pm UTC (5pm PST). You may edit and modify your submission up to this time.
Every valid participation requires that your in-game handle is clearly present in your submission (preferably at the beginning or the end of the post). If you forget to post your handle, please edit your submission so it's not missed.
Your submission must be something you've made yourself.
Rules:
- 1000 word limit
- Valid in-game handle in the submission
I won't be strict with the exact word count, but please aim for something that I can process in a reasonable amount of time.
I'm looking forward to seeing your submissions!
Post edited by atnquick on
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“Computer, create a new analysis log, begin recording”.
(Computer voice) “Now recording“.
“Chief Science officer’s analysis log, stardate 77947.8, USS Hernan Cortes, my assistant Ensign Delune Ghena is present in the room, I’ve also invited one of our guests Azhal Toran, Senior researcher of the Krenim empire’s Temporal mechanics bureau as an observer, due to the unusual reading and the presence of a temporal anomaly, I’ve concluded that his presence might be beneficial.”
“A wise decision” Interrupted Azhal “Very well, we should begin by removing the outer …” Velerie interrupts “As I said, Doctor Toran, as an observer, but your enthusiasm is appreciated”.
“Ensign Ghena, please, your preliminary analysis”.
“Yeas, Ma’am, item 235-C, found while analyzing a temporal anomaly near Earth Spacedock, we believe it’s a beacon of some kind, preliminary analysis indicate it’s not from our present time but from the future, its configuration and energy signatures seem very familiar to those used by the Federation, I have the hypothesis that this might be a temporal beacon sent by the Federation from the future”.
“Let’s not be so hasty, it might look like a temporal beacon, but we should analyze it first before jumping to conclusions”.
“I agree with the doctor, ensign please, hand me the optronic probe, I will try to extract information from this data port”.
As soon as the optronic probe made contact with the data port the beacon activated, all lab equipment shut down for a few seconds before coming back online, a face appeared in all the lab’s computer screens.
It’s a man, he looks very distressed, almost at the verge of a mental breakdown, his right shoulder was injured, the room he is in appears to be in shambles and there are 2 bodies lying around in the floor.
“It was too late for us, but maybe, maybe you can … yes, there is time, if you control time, there is always time … [Static] … are everywhere now, but you can stop them, I’ve ordered the computer to send this recording back in time, so if you are seeing this, it means it worked, now list very carefully, they … [Static] … “
“Ensign, please try adjusting the narrow band frequency to compensate, and run a reconstruction algorithm”.
“It all began after the war with the Iconians, it was them all along … [Static] … they caused this they caused the war, they were behind everything, Dewa III, listen, you must destroy Dewa III … New Romulus! You must destroy it before they spread through all the galaxy … [Static] …
The war, it left our fleets in shambles, billions of deaths, we were all morally devastated, and that’s when they did it, that’s when they infiltrated the alliance, from ensign or admiral, they all had one or wanted one, once we realized about the secret plot, it was too late, the alliance, the Dominion, even the Borg they all fell under their influence…
One of the scariest things one could hear, prepare for assimilation, was soon replaced by their mantra, and they kept repeating, again and again and …
I had to shoot my best friend … I-I-I couldn’t stop him.
They’ll soon overrun this starbase, it’s too late for me … us … but you can prevent this from ever happening … they found me ….”
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
“No … please”.
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
“Don’t … you … wa … no!”.
The man pull a phaser and aims it at his head (phaser discharge).
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
“Turn off that damn thing!” yelled Valerie.
“Epohh? I have one of those things in my quarters, a Romulan lady gave it to me! dear god”.
“Calm down doctor, now that we know about it, we can prevent it”.
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
“Dammit, I said turn that off!”.
“I .. did” said Delune.
The laboratory door slides open.
“Don’t you want an Epohh friend?”
EDIT: I've got the Idea from this thread: http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1203936/epohh-adorable-pets-or-secret-evil-masterminds
I wrote an small story there, but this gives me the chance to expand it a bit, I moved this part to the bottom of the post so it doesn't spoil the surprise.
Don't forget to post your in game @handle!
Sorry I forgot, it's @bioixi, same as my forum name.
"Captain's log, stardate 56844.9
We have taken the ship in tow now, and are en route to Starbase 153. It's the Mary Celeste, a K class merchanter registered out of Arcanis. It was damned strange, all alone out there, with no sign of its crew anywhere.
I boarded her myself, with Dr. Albrecht, Lieutenant Kep, and Security Crewmen Rodri and Gail. Ship's power was low: the automatics had shut down almost every system to conserve what power was left. It smelled of death everywhere. Although there were no signs of immediate danger anywhere that I could see, I was reluctant to split the boarding party. We all went aft to check Engineering.
The engineering compartment proved empty of anything living, and no signs were discovered of anything dead, other than the pervasive odor which had us all jumping at shadows in the dark. Either the ship's engines consumed 95% of the fuel on board, which is the equivalent of about five years of warp travel, or something offloaded her fuel. Scavengers or pirates wouldn't leave an intact ship adrift, but who else would drain her fuel tanks almost dry? After we determined there was nothing obvious wrong with the engines, we headed up to the forward end of the ship.
For safety, and to be sure we didn't let anything get behind us, we did a room-to-room search as we went. Nothing was in disarray, nothing appeared damaged in any way, and there appeared to be a full compliment of life craft still docked in their compartments. Would someone want to simply beam the crew off the ship? Who would want captives, prisoners, slaves, or worse, but not want the ship?
By the time we made it to the bridge, our nerves were shot. Even there we found no signs of tampering, attack, invasion, or any damned thing else. The navigation computer had been turned off to conserve power, so I couldn't check on the ship's previous course, and the ship's archives will not be accessible until auxiliary power is restored.
Having conducted a full scan of the vessel, medical, biological, chemical, radiological, we've determined that there is no current hazard on the abandoned ship, and we have taken it in tow. I now have engineering teams preparing to refuel her, and I am considering the possibility, depending on Engineering's report of the ship's structural integrity, of assigning a prize crew to take her home. This might prove to be a good opportunity to see what Mister Englan can do with his first command.
I've sent the appropriate queries to Arcanis informing them of the situation and asking about current owners as well as the recent history of the ship.
Close log."
***
"Captain's log, stardate 56845.2
I've ordered all stop while we search for a missing crewman, Engineer's Mate 2nd class Michell Holliday failed to report for duty, and when her watch supervisor looked for her she was nowhere to be found. We've conducted a full search of this ship, and are conducting a search of the Mary Celeste. We also have two shuttlecraft searching along our backtrail.
Damn. I'll have to get back to this: close log."
***
"Captain's log, stardate 56845.4
Five more crewmen have gone missing: Lieutenant Hoc from Engineering, Warp Tech 2nd class Dursilli Amod, Power Technician 3rd class Emon Chi, Crewman Stanly Atchinson, and Crewman Tracy Rodri. Six crew missing now. We have the clothing worn by the last three: it appears that the automated cleaning units treat a dropped uniform as dirty laundry without regard for the current state of emergency. They have been disabled. It is likely that the previous three left their clothing behind as well, but we didn't look for it until it was too late. I wonder what else we've missed?
Whatever is taking them is doing so undetected. I have sciences pouring over every theory and every crackpot idea they can think of that would explain all of this and allow me to rescue my missing crew.
Close log."
***
"Captain's Log, stardate 56845.7
Over half of my crew is gone: their uniforms are all that remain. Every trace of organic matter... gone. Until he too vanished the Doctor was working on a biological angle. He thought a virus might be involved, but his notes have proven unhelpful to the remaining medical staff.
My command is dissolving before my eyes, and there's nothing I can do about it! One by one my crew is being plucked away by some invisible adversary, but I cannot find him! There is no microbe, no alien. I've even been scanning for subspace monsters. But I get nothing on any scanner.
I have instructed the computer to loop my latest log entries and broadcast them in the event that no one uses the ship's controls for fifteen minutes. Whatever it is that is doing this, it may still be aboard my ship. Don't risk bringing it aboard yours! Treat this ship as a Plague Ship! If we don't solve this soon, the ship's computer projects that all of us will be gone in the next two hours. Help us if you can, but for the love of God, don't risk contaminating yourself.
Close log."
***
"Captain's log, stardate 56845.8
I think we may have discovered the problem, if not the cure. If I'm right, the victims are no longer recoverable. They aren't disappearing, they are being disassembled.
I have set the Mary Celeste on an intercept course with the nearest star which, at its current speed, will be a journey of some three thousand years. My own ship I have set on course to the Federation in the hopes that someone can..."
The image on the screen appears to liquefy and melt, running down until the last trace of the former captain vanishes from the collar of his uniform tunic. The scene remains static and unchanging for fifteen minutes, then the image blanks and a new image forms.
"Captain's log, stardate 56844.9
We have taken the ship in tow now, and are en route to Starbase 153. It's the Mary Celeste, a K class merchanter registered out of Arcanis..."
***
@brian 334
I have the answer to this mystery, but I doubt I have put enough clues in the story to let the reader guess it. It might be interesting to see what you think it is, but knowing the answer won't matter to the story.
“It’s a pleasure,” said Mehtan, offering as warm and genuine a smile as he could manage. A decade of diplomatic missions on behalf of the Dominion had made him quite talented at negotiating with denizens of the Gamma Quadrant, though authenticity was not always a trait commonly associated with the Vorta. In many instances deception was a useful skill, especially when courting unusual or difficult species.
The inhabitants of Polokas V certainly qualified as unusual. Their representative stood less than a meter away, a silver-skinned mess of limbs. It had no real core, no body that observation or discrete scans had revealed, just an arbitrary point where appendages seemed to spill forth. Some Polokans had dozens of thin limbs, others possessed only a few. They were smooth, scaled, rough, rigid, slick, and barbed, slowly shifting over time to reveal new patterns.
In one smooth, sudden motion the representative surged close to Mehtan, one tentacled limb rushing at his face. It stopped so close that if Mehtan nodded his nose would touch the smooth metal sheen of the creature. He resisted the strong urge to flee and quickly lifted a hand to calm his First. It was almost endearing how eager the Jem’Hadar were to defend their leader, but Mehtan harbored no illusions: it was a fight and their precious White they truly craved.
Ripples formed at the end of the tentacle, changing the texture of the mirror-like surface. Mehtan was unable to contain his fascination as vented ears, a proud nose, deep eyes, a strong chin, and thick curls appeared on the Polokan limb. He was staring into a steely reflection of his own face, immaculately copied down to the tiny scar on his left cheek from an understandably upset Klingon. Mehtan’s smile stretched across the doppleganger’s face.
It’s a pleasure.
The voice resembled Mehtan’s, but was somehow muffled and muted. Agonizing moments passed in silence. Both parties were motionless on the barren, grey rock that formed half of Polokas V’s surface. Finally Mehtan recovered and continued.
“That is a most incredible ability; do you often use the forms of others to communicate?”
often
The word was plucked from Mehtan’s speech, a lone adverb borrowed for this alien’s purpose.
“Always?”
Always?
Despite the inquisitive tone, Mehtan understood the response. “The Dominion is very interested in furthering these communications and establishing a lasting relationship with your people. We thank you for welcoming us to your planet.”
The Dominion / interested / thank you
“I appreciate your sentiment. We -”
One of the Polokans behind the main representative sinuously drifted forward. A leg that was both metallic and chitinous arced towards the Dominion shuttlecraft some distance behind Mehtan and his two escorts. The spiked end rippled to form a row of spikes and a broad, ridged forehead. It was an uncannily accurate reflection of the Fifth.
We should kill them all and be done with the place.
Mehtan glared back towards the shuttle before turning his gaze towards the two Polokans. “I beg you to forgive my associates, they are -”
Another Polokan had formed the face of the Jem’Hadar, then another. Mehtan now realized just how many Polokans were in attendance as he heard a cacophony of voices, his and the Jem’Hadar, overlapping in a maddening chorus.
We should / be done
your people / planet
kill them / we / place
The Dominion / interested
The Polokans writhed in an arguing cloud of arms, legs, talons, claws, hooves, and faces. Their energy continued to crescendo, their motions growing more rapid, more threatening, until it suddenly stopped.
They stood still, a dozen or more Polokans, a forest of silver flesh. Mehtan couldn’t understand what had interrupted their discussion. He began to turn to his subordinate and mouth a question before noticing the raised polaron rifle.
The First fired a shot into the clustered natives. To his credit, the genetically engineered soldier struck a Polokan in its artificially conjured Vorta face, spattering silvery ichor over the adjacent aliens. They let out a series of stuttering hisses, what Mehtan imagined was the first original noise the Polokans had made. Despite the imminent threat, the sound was an exobiological curiosity. Why would the Polokans make that noise?
A pained grunt interrupted Mehtan’s reverie, and the Second to his left crumbled. The Polokans were a roiling, hissing mass, but they had moved out of arm’s reach of the Dominion party. Confused, Mehtan knelt to inspect the warrior. Globs of mercurial ooze dripped from a dozen wounds on his chest.
Before he had an opportunity to inspect the damage, Mehtan was flung behind a nearby rock by his First. The Third was not so fortunate, suffering hits to his side and leg before diving into cover. “You said they had primitive technology,” barked the First. “Where did they get weapons that can do this?”
Mehtan shook his head. “We performed thorough scans and detected nothing that could…”
“What is it, Vorta?”
“Your rifles,” muttered Mehtan. “That was the noise they were making.”
The hissing drew closer, and Mehtan could hear the faint noise of something striking the other side of the rock.
“Finally something worth killing. Third,” said the First, “we go into battle to reclaim our lives.”
Mehtan nodded and waved a dismissive hand in approval of their suicidal bravery. “Yes, go.” The Jem’Hadar drew their kar’takins and charged around either side of their cover with a bestial roar.
Their valiant distraction gave Mehtan a chance to scramble to his feet and try to escape this disaster. Ringing blades replaced the sound of weapons fire, confirming a suspicion that eluded the First. Mehtan spared a moment to glance over his shoulder as he fled, catching sight of his First impaled on a Jem’Hadar blade grown from a Polokan’s limb.
Mehtan was only a few meters from the shuttle. Two Jem’Hadar had taken cover behind the loading ramp, though one had made the mistake of trying to enter the shuttle and had taken several silver slugs in the back for his efforts. Mehtan took no small amount of joy in the fact that the Jem’Hadar corpse blocking the ramp was the Fifth.
“Get us out of here!” shouted Mehtan.
One of the Jem’Hadar nodded, breaking cover to board the shuttle. He took two steps before something struck Mehtan from behind, knocking him to the ground. He rolled over to see a legion of Vorta faces staring down at him. They smiled in unison as they leaned closer.
It’s a pleasure.
It’s a pleasure.
It’s a pleasure.
@Charybdian
1081 Words
Hope you enjoy!
Thank you both for your submissions!
This is turning out to be really awesome!
I know what I think it is, but I'm going to hold-off on actually guessing until after the deadline...
Meanwhile, I'm working on a entry of my own for the writing portion that I hope to have finished this weekend...
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
Prologue : The USS Crazy Horse enroute to a conference on new romulus is contacted by starfleet command to divert course to the one of the outer most federation colonies.
The room is darkened with only a small light on a family picture being the only source of light in the room , a figure in the nearby bed is having a disturbed sleep when the intercom awakes her from her troubled sleep .
"Admiral? sorry to wake you " a familar female voice says " but we've received a communication from starfleet command to divert course" as the admiral sits up and presses the intercom buttn on the desk next to her " Commander flores whats the nature of the orders?" the commanders voice pops back on " unknown sir , weve been instructed to divert course to one of our colonies".
The admiral gets up and gets dressed and then makes her way to her ready room and then using her terminals comms she contacts admiral quinn at starfleet command " jorel? you do know this conference on new rom is important to reconstruction after the war".
Jorel quinns face comes on the monitor "yes araya i know, however theres a situation thats arisen , we lost contact with our colony on the edge of the alpha quadrant 4 months ago" his face is stern and serious " this in itself is not why were sending you there , we lose contact with our outer most colonies all the time" his voice concerned but strong " why your going there is we received a ....message from the colony a few hours ago, and we cant make heads or tales of it, im sending you the recording now its audio only".
A few seconds later a audio starts playing a voice comes on clearly humanoid but strange sounding similar to the borg but not inteliagble " q'wer t'pol nmKoL feRto MeNudAC metUs" she leans in listening closley as the voice becomes more agitated
"PE'KL BOMRR RATK KEELLK ARTUYUY MEEK CRESACK REEN TAKA MEAK ?!!" the audio ends.
Admiral truh sits back with a puzzled look "jorel have you tried running that through all translators and data.." jorel quinn interupts "yes araya , we have already done that and we also checked memory alpha and theres nothing on file to match this language".
She sits back in deep thought " jorel what do we know about this colony, are they near any aliens who may be hostile?" jorel quinn responds "its a agricultural community , they are nuturalists who besides a basi communications array does not use modern technology" she rubs her temple clearly with a headache.
" This just gets stranger and stranger jorel , but uhm why the crazy horse isnt the valley forge in that area?" jorel quinn responds " yes but, captain anderson is not as experianced with the unknown and alien species as yourself".
and until we know whats going on there i want my best on the ground...that means you araya".
She cracks a slight grin though its sarcastic in nature , she rolls her black betazoid eyes in disgust " why me , iconians , romulans and klingons OH MY!!" jorel interupts "Ok dorothy hop to it and...dont forget toto this time?" he chuckles a little trying to lighten the mood.
A few minutes later she comes out of her ready room and onto the bridge looks over at her twin sister and second in command lowana and before she could talk lowana speaks up " so another one of those save the universe missions sis?" araya looking at her sisters pleasent yet sarcastic expression would make her laugh under her breath as she says " something like that commander , set course for the Teledraxon Prime best possible speed".
The ship goes to warp , a few days later the crazy horse is in low orbit of the planet
Araya calls her command staff together in the meeting room to discuss the situation
"Alright this is what we know , about 4 months ago we lost contact with this colony , but recently we received a communication from them that is both strange and unitelligable" lowana speaks " Well if its unintelligent maybe we can just post an im with stupid sign...." araya interupts "that will be enough commander , either you can take this situation serious or i can relieve you of command and find some one who will" Lowana ducks her head knowing she crossed the line "Sorry sir".
"Anyways here is the recording , its been ran through every known data base and translators and still we cant make heads or tails of it" the staff listens intently the lone voth in the room lifts a scaled eyebrow " intruiging , very intruiging admiral" araya looks over at him " nelen do you know whats being said?" nelen nods slightly "yes captain the voth encuntered this language once in the delta quadrant , it used to belong to a species known as the T'Kon they once had a vast empire that even rivaled the ancient iconians.
He continues "but they are thought to have went extinct several milenia ago , but the voth have several recordings of their speech and as usual the voth superiors believe they are ancestors , im not convinced" araya with a interested look says " so your saying that the speech we just heard is from a long extinct culture and species?" nelen again nods slightly "yes admiral , but as we have already been taught , not all extinct species are so".
Araya sits back and listens as nelen exil details the voths' findings of the t'kon and their research " So you see we voth determined that the t'kon went extinct after a long and bloody war with non other then the iconians , that war set the iconians on the path that created their lost empire , it is believed the t'kon and iconians were the first two races crated by the preservers, oh if only my former colleagues couldve met the preservers it would have destroyed the doctrine and the shackles that binds us then mayb..." araya interupts "ok nelen but what about the research what came of it".
Nelen looks down with a saddned look " sadly it was abandoned after an artifact was discovered that had some sort of nano virus that infected the crew of a voth research vessel , idk what happened or what became of the crew most of that information was sealed , and any discussion was considered an act against the doctrine and punishble by death". he continues " i lost several good friends and my brother on that vessel " araya gives him a slight rassuring smile " its ok nelen , and thank you for sharing all that".
Araya sits back and confers with her other science officer a liberated borg "7 of 11 ? what do you know of the t'kon did the borg have any information on them" seven of eleven looks over " no admiral, the borg knew little to nothing of the t'kon besides the name and references to a vast fallen empire".
Araya looks over at kada'ukan her jem hadar security chief "kadak did the dominion know anything of the t'kon?" he looks at her his face stern as always "No" she would look around the room engaging each person with eye contact and a reassuring smile, but beneath she was troubled , what had happened on the planet below, why the strange message and how did the t'kon empire intertwine with the situation.
She looks down at the table its shiny black surface smooth and as dark as any obsidian or onyx the dark surface reflecting her face , pretty yet aged in one year she had faced so much , only 26 years old and already ...a grey hair, she would smirk then look up "I think we need to take a detailed scan of the area before we set foot on ground , i wanna more clearer picture of what we might be walking into , nelen you and seven scan the surrounding area i want to know if anything is amiss even the smallest detail, lowana i want you and kudak to ready away teams for possible ground combat , we dont know what in the hell is down there so we need to be ready for when we hit the ground , and docotor? " the emh looks over with a slightly disgrintled look " oh so now your finally acknowldedging my existence how wonderfull , im betting my other copy never got this treatment on voyager..." Araya would interupt " this is not voyager docotor and im sure the hell not admiral janeway and if you dont keep it professional i will take your holoemitter and shut your as...." the doctor interupts "yes ok i know i will get the medical bay ready for possible casualties" he leaves the room.
A few hours pass as the scans were being taken then as admiral truh sits in her ready room , nelen exil enters "Yes nelen? " the voth has a puzzled but also excited look on his face "admiral weve taken some prelimenary scans and found something both odd and interesting on the planets surface and aswell as what we found just outside of the planets gravity well mixed up among the rocks of the planets rings system" araya looks up from her cup of coffee royale albiet with synthale in it " ok give it to me nelen , what did you find" he sits down and pushes a tablet across the table " here look for yourself admiral, it seems for a colony that is supposed to NOT want technology that they are using several power generators and shielding matrixes aswell as transport inhibators not to mention several what seems to be industrial replicators and this " he points to the over view and an odd building spherical in shape "this we dont know what it is , or what it does but it clearly is not indiginous to either this colony or the federation".
She looks closley at the over view trying to make sense of what she was looking at "and admiral about what we found in the planets ring system ?" she looked up " what did you find" nelen stands up " i think you need to see for yourself sir, we took the liberty of transporting it aboard , its in cargo bay 3".
A few minutes later they enter the cargo bay there are pieces of debris scattered about , clearly tritanium in compasisition she turns to nelen "do we know whats this debris is from?" nelen shakes his head slightly "no admiral we dont but its clearly federation in origin , we determined that my chemical analysis of the debris we have recovered" araya watches as the crew in the cargo bay scramble about assembling the pieces like a large jigsaw puzzle , then nelen points out on piece in particular "here admiral what i wanted you to see " the piece of metal had on its surface in a bold captial letter - B she looked closer at it "dash B thats not alot to go on nelen but worth noting , maybe this debris drifted here " nelen interupts " admiral the debris field is exntensive and supports the otion that a ship was destroyed here, it may be a ship that drifted here and was eventually destroyed , or perhaps was attacked by unknown assailants , either way a federation ship was destroyed and .." araya interupts "yes yes nelen , i will make note of this and send it on to starfleet for further investigation , but we have a whole colony that we need to investigate right now".
An hour later araya meets with lowana and kudak'ukan in the shuttle bay for a breifing the jem hadar starts "first we need to land away from the outskirts and move in i can go in first and scout the area , since im able to use shrouds" araya nods then lowana speaks up "after kudak finishes scouting then we can figure out our primary and secondary targets , first and foremost is seeing if we can find any colonists survivors ,who can shed some light on whats going on" araya speaks up "after we get an idea of the situation , im going to lead a team on a imformation gathering infiltration on the strange building , i want to know whats going on in there, and theres only one way tha..." lowana interupts "sis i know you were first in our class in assault and reconissance excercises but i really have to object about you going on this..." araya interupts "objections noted , now lets get our feet on the ground , you know the plan now lets get on it" the admiral and the asault teams board thier shuttles and depart the crazy horse.
Several minutes later the shuttles arrive at their destinations , as the teams disembark they notice that its quiet as in no sound whatsoever , not a bird , not a dog ,cat local wildlife...nothing just the sound of a gentle breeze.
As the proceed araya being betazoid starts sensing something , as if something is watching them "I dont think were alone guys look sharp" the team continues proceeding toward the main village the point holds up his fist ad quietly but excideldly motions for araya to come to his position.
As she gets there the young ensign has a panicked look on his young face she can sense his terror , he points to the ground there she see's a corpse on the ground , the remains of a young woman late teens perhaps early twenties she was recently killed her body still warm to the touch , the young ensign who just a week before had graduated the academy his eyes wide with terror , araya would place her hand on his shoulder and give him a gentle smile the young mans terror eases a little .
The group begins to move on to their objectives but just a few feet away from the corpse of the young woman , it begins to make a noise , like a gurgling sound they turn and see the body arch its back then it stops and the eerie silence takes its place , one of the junior science officer starts toward the remains to take another scan , when tenticles shoot from her arms and legs and stretches up into a nearby tree she leaps up , and before the team can react she wraps the young officer in a bear hug so tightly his eyes red out she takes the young man into the tree, the rush over to the tree but nothing is there , save for his bloodied leg.
They back away slowly at first then as they turn the female is directly in front of them covered in blood her clothes torn away but her body covered in a organic exoskeleton , as she grins her mouth is now full of spiked teeth , like a mouth full of daggers dripping with blood , the creature begins moving towards them and wipes the blood from her curled cruel lips , they start backpeddling as she advances araya lifts her rifle "FIRE GODDAMNIT!!, FIRE ALREADY!!!" the creature begins to run at them as the group opens fire , and in the space of a couple seconds the creature covers the distance of two football fields 200 yards and is on the group and begins ripping them apart, she soon is the only member left , and the creature is still advancing.
Her weapons have no affect even on thier highest setting , araya quickly remembers something one of her instructors taught her during assault and siege excercises at the academy she quickly sets her rifle to overload tosses it at the feet of the creature pulls her phaser and shoots the rifle, it explodes violently as the dust settles there stands the creature its face half peeled away , exposing what looks to be a insect like face the creature appears stunned , araya using this momment runs into the underbrush , the creature lets out a loud screech the silent planet becomes alive with the sounds of screeching and movement, whatever these things are they are now aware of her , and her crew.
She moves quickly but quietly through the underbrush until she reaches a small cave she kneels down and attempts to communicate with the other teams "team A come in team C anyone can you hear me " the commbadge makes a squelching sound but nothing, she is on her own.
She can hear the sounds of movement lots of movement it all around her , aswell as the screeching she sits there waiting till nightfall so that maybe she can make her way back to the shuttle , she retreats deeper into the cave.
As night comes the sound start dying down she starts to leave the cave when something touches her she whirls around and points her phaser ready to fire but stops , she see's in the dim dusk light a young girl 7 or 8 years "Dont go , they will see you"
araya kneels down "who are you , do you know what happened?" the little girl cowers behind a rock buries her head into her knees and begins rocking "no no no no " aray can sense the childs terror "you dont have to tell me , but whats your name mines araya" she extends her hand to the little girls with a warm soft smile , the girl runs further into the cave "NO NO NO!! , go away you will become to " the girl clearly terrified run deeper into the cave , araya follows closley behind.
A short time later she reaches a dead end the girl is now cornered "Please go away , you will become to YOU ALWAYS BECOME!!!" araya kneels down but does not approach "become what , tell me what am i going to become, what happened here , where is your family " the child bursts into tears and becomes hysterical "NO FAMILY THEY BECAME TO!!, GO AWAY I DONT WANT TO BECOME " the girls passes out due to exaushtion, araya moves to the child picks her up and brushes the hair from her face "its ok sweetie , i dont know whats going on here , or what those creatures are but your safe now" she sits down cradling the child in her arms "poor kid , youve been through hell havent you ".
A couple hours later the child wakes up looks up at araya still holding her "they will find you, they always find , and you will become too, just like ..." she stops and buries her face in arayas arms and cries , araya holds her and starts to sing an old betazoid lullaby one her own mother sang to her when she was upset, the little girl looks up at her "my mom used to sing to me to , before she became" araya smiles gently at the girl and continues singing.
as she completes the song the little girl calms down , araya looks at her "whats your name ?, mines araya " the little girl looks down " clara" araya smiles "nice to meet you clara" she looks at the girl " are you ok clara? can i ask you some questions about the village the people and whats going on?" she smiles reassuringly .
" if you dont want to talk about it , its ok " she smiles at the little clara , clara looks down "they all became" araya asks "what do you mean became?" clara starting to look panicked again "The thing came from the sky and then everyone...became ".
Her eyes start filing with tears araya hugs her "its ok sweetie you dont have to say anymore.." clara shakes her head "the thing fell from the sky , my daddy called it a ship , he and the men of our village went to look, they all became , they attacked our village there were the others that came with them , who already became daddy attacked mom his breath was green he breathed in moms face, she started choking her eyes changed she started talking strangley , i ran away she started chasing me she screamed everyone became everyone chased me i hid" araya started crying , the poor kid she suffered terribly seeing her mom and dad turned into one of those creatures.
After clara finished telling her what had happened , araya knew the situation was dire and that this went from being a mission of investigation into a matter of survival.
Araya wanted to ask clara more and if she knew about the odd structure, but didnt want to pres the girl anymore , they couldnt stay i the cave forever but leaving risked being set upon by the creatures.
They made their way to the mouth of the cave quietly the planet seemed to be silent again , clara was clearly shaken araya would whisper to her "you ok sweetie?" the girl shakes her head "when its quiet....someone is becoming, its always quiet when someone becomes".
( To be continued)
Just as they were about to leave the cave clara gives a short scream , araya turns just as a figure rushes up and decloaks "admiral , you were not at the predetermined coordinates that were agreed upon , i used my knowledge of tracking to locate you , i have finished my scouting of the area" the jem hadar soldier looks down at the young girl , his face his stern and rough he looks at her "i see youve located a colonist , perhaps i could interogate her and find out..." Araya looks at him sharply "that will be enough kudak'ukan , this child has been through alot already without having you threatining to interogate her" the jem hadar looks back at his superior "yes i overstepped , if you wish i will terminate myself for isubordination" araya shakes her head " no kudak just tell me what youve found" he looks around "admiral where are the members of you team?" she looks at him "we were attacked by an unknown creature i was the only one to survive" the jem hadar bowed his head in respect "they died well"
The three of them reentered the cave the jem hadar started to give his report "admiral ive located three areas of interest , one is the spherical building i was able to get close but could not enter the inhabtants sem to be able to see through my shroud in close proximity to them, however it seems to be an incubation chamber of sorts, they take the dead inside people, animals anything that was alive , for what purpose ive no idea" araya listens carefully "second i discovered some sort of object at the village center..." clara interupts "They brought it from the place my dad went and became" the jem hadar scowls at the child , araya intercedes " thanks sweetie , kudak what else did you find out " the jem hadar looks back at his superior "a crater admiral a very large one it may have been a meteor or asteroid impact , but its heavily guarded i could not get close enough to find out what is in the crater".
Araya looks around then looks down "Me and clara were about to set off to find a way off the planet and look for survivors, kudak have you heard anything from the other teams?....my sister?" the jem hadar looks at her with a disapproving look "admiral i was scouting the terrain using my shroud , breaking radio silence would have given away my position " araya looks up "your right kudak , im just worried about lowana and her team"
She looks about the cave "lets use this as a base camp , and try to make our way back to the shuttle..." the jem hadar interupts "your shuttle was detroyed , it looked as if it had been pried apart by a great force , it also appeared to be done ....by hand". she looks at kudak with shock "by hand?.." kudak looked at her " yes there were places where what appeared to be a hand print of unknown origin that was squeezed by tremendous force into the metal" she nods slightly " well kudak my team cam across a dead body that not only came back to life but tranformed before our eyes into a creature that attacked us, even a phaser rifle set to overload in its face only stunned it, it ripped apart my team before we could react" kudak gets a stern angry look "what will you do about them" araya looks at him with a sharo look "nothing kudak, we need to find a way off this planet and the only way i can think of doing that is link up with one of the other teams if they are alive , and the only way of doing that is going through the village" clara begins to panic " no no please no i dont wanna go back i dont wanna become please araya dot make me " araya consoles her " sweetie we need to leave this planet you , me even kudak'ukan if we meet up with my friends and my sister we can leave this place and no one will become anything" kudak looks at the child then looks at araya " i could take the child and look for the other team i can extend my shroud to hide us both, she is not to large and my shroud should be able to hide us both" clara looks at araya "why cant you go to" araya gives her consoling look " because kudak can hide you both you will be invisible , and you can get by those creatures and to safety" clara looks down at her feet "ok" araya looks up at kudak "im gonna try to investigate the those three places you mentioned , one way or another we need to get to the bottom of whats going on here kudak" he nods and looks at her " very well admiral , i will take the child where the other teams are supposed to be " araya looks at them both "be safe you two" he takes the girls hand and they both vanish as kudak activates his shroud.
Araya leave the cave and begins moving quietly through the underbrush towards the edge of the village , theres little activity its quiet no movement like a ghost town only the sound of a gentle breeze through the trees.
She quickly make a break from the treeline and makes her way to the nearest building making sure to take cover behind it , she starts moving from building to building making sure to take cover each time slowly making her way to the spherical building , she gets within 100 yards when she hears sounds coming from within the building she is at she gets closer to one of the windows , she can hear two people talking though its in the dialect like from the audio recording , but then one of the people says a word in broken but understandable english....Hairyman.
She watches as the creatures leave the building and walk towards the spherical one she decided to enter the building and see what was going on inside , and what or who is the hairyman.
She enters quietly and starts looking around the place seems to have been ransacked theres not much to look at , but just as she was about to leave she notices what looks like an idol it looks like a man , but is not definate she looks closer and notices the idol has what appears to be an late 23rd century starfleet uniform even has what appears to be a crude starfleet badge.
She looks around the base of the idol and finds...bones , teeth in a bowl of blood she backs away slowly and bumps into something, she turns around and is about to shoot, a door the door to the room she is in she sighs and takes a deep breath in relief , she leaves the building and starts moving towards the spherical building the daylight is starting to fade to dusk and she still hasnt gotten to the other team, if they are still alive.
She finally manages to make her way to the spherical building though kudak said it was guarded besides the two creatures from the other buiding the village seems deserted, she eases to the door it opens with a low "whoosh she slowly enters , its dimly lit , the only lights are a dull greenish color and its hard to make out whats inside.
She activates a personal flashight she had in her kit turns around and is confronted with a corpse inside a cylinder of some sort of liquid, she looks closley and relises its one of her crew members from team C his skin is no an opaque color , and tubes run in and out of his body with a green liquid. she starts moving around the room and finds even more corpses being done in the same way, each room she enters the same results , what the hell is going on here she thinks to herself as she enters a central chamber.
She looks around the chamber its large with a vaulted ceiling , there appears to be more cylinders lining the walls in the center there is a spherical object black in color with a green light eminating from under it aswell as the seams around its circumphrance, she approaches cautiously she slowly reaches out her hand when she hears laughter from within the room it seems like its all around her she steps back and lifts her phaser "show yourself" relising she just gave her position away bit her lip.
Then she hears a voice in perfect english "All the lost children come unto me" she looks around for whoever, or whatever is talking "GODAMNIT SHOW YOURSELF" the voice laughs as if its taunting her,
"Hush, little baby dont say a word"
she looks around in the dim room the voice laughing and taunting her every move
"Fathers' going to buy you a mockingbird"
she tries to run for the door but it closes , again the voice laughs
"If the mockingbird wont sing"
She starts to panic for the first time in her life she is trapped and the voice , the voice keeps taunting and laughing
"Father is going to buy you a diamond ring"
Araya runs towars he spherical object this time is met with a force field and is knocked to the ground
"And if that diamond ring turns brass"
She stands up "KILL ME IF YOUR GOING TO DO IT!!!"
"Father is going to buy you a looking glass"
She shots the spherical object though the shield absorbs the hit
"And if the looking glass gets broke , father is going to make you into a servant drone"
the voice is now directly behind her she turns and is face to face with man in a starfleet uniform albiet from the late 23rd century , he looks at her and grins menacingly "Do you need help?" he stretches out his hand araya backs up "here let me help you" his fingers turn into sharp spikes the extend towards her she barley gets out of the way.
She starts shooting at him though her phaser has no effect , as he moves forward his appearence begins to change from that of a human his body has a exoskeleton but much more stronger then the first creature encountered , his face falls away revealing a hideous insectoid creature with fangs for teeth.
from his back sprouts four more legs which he stands on abandoning his bipedal legs , araya begins to back away and shoot but he is on her in a matter of momments he has her pinned to the grounds but one hand is free , she manages to grab her phaser and set it for overload and shoves it in its mouth , it rears back as the phaser detonates the door opens and she runs out , seconds later the creature runs after her.
As she runs from the creature the cylinders begin to open and the people within start trying to attack her she finally manages to make it outside its dark and she is disoriented she runs with no direction in mind she , she is halfway across the village when the creature burst from the building it lets out a loud ear shattering screech and a hiss , seconds later it is met by screeching and hissing other creatures burst from within buildings and from out of the tree lines, she runs for cover and tries to hide but with each attempt they find her , she relises they must see in the infrared spectrum at night, she starts running again the creatures close behind and gaining.
She is finally caught and pinned by the "father" creature from the building she no longer has the strength to fight back , she accepts her fate closes her eyes as the creature leans down to breath its miasma into her , she takes a deep breath and holds, her head begins to swim and she cannot hold her breath anymore and just as she is about to breath in , the creature jumps up and screeches differently this time she backs away and takes breath, she is dazed and watches as the creature is being attacked she looks over and see's her sister shooting at the creature with a blast assault gun, she looks over and watches as the creature lets out a loud screech which stuns everyone , the creature rushes back towards the village.
Lowana runs over and kneels down "its ok sis , everything is going to be alright now" lowana looks up and hollers for a medic "What the hell was that thing" araya looks around dazed "wheres clara?" lowana looks down "shes fine sis , she is at the shuttle " lowana hollers for the medic again "damn medics always late right?".
Several days later araya is at starfleet command being debriefed about the incident , she is looking around the office and notices pictures of past and present enterprises and their crew , as she looks them over she chokes on her spiced tea spitting it all over jorel quinn "THATS HIM !!!" she exclaims "thats who?!" jorel retorts , she picks up the picture of the enterprise B and its crew "him, the man in the federation uniform, the creature " she points to the man standing next to the captains chair, quinn looks at the person she is pointing to "Thats captain johm harriman araya, he couldnt have been there him and the enterprise B dissapeared a couple hundred years ago, this whole ordeal has been taxing on you , i will schedule and appoit..." araya grabs quinn by the collar and nearly pulls him over his desk "goddamnit jorel , i know what the hell i saw , and he was the creature" she lets quinn go he sits back "yeah i think you need some vacation time araya risa has got some events going this time of year , maybe you can take some of those in, and im scheduling with a counsler to help you deal with combat fatigue" she gets up and walks from the room quinn looks down at the picture "mustve been a rough ride, to actually think john harriman was some alien creature" he places the picture back on its shelf.
Ingame Handle @Messahla same as the forum anyways hope you guys enjoyed the short story again sorry for the length once im inspired to write its hard to stop
Character: Male Human Starfleet Engineer
Timeframe: After acquiring a Heavy Cruiser Refit (Constellation Class).
----
"An Exercise in Elaboration"
'Ghost Story'
----
"This ship makes me nervous," Lieutenant Commander Elisa Flores commented as she and her fellow officers exited the turbolift onto the bridge of their new assignment, the U.S.S. Malone, an eighty-year old Constellation-class Heavy Cruiser.
"Why?" Zarva, the Bolian Lieutenant who would be the ship's new Chief Engineer asked, "Because it's an old under-powered, soon to be over-worked, example of Starfleet scraping the bottom of the barrel to find enough ships to fight the Klingons with?"
"No," Flores retorted, "Not because it's your idea of a dream assignment, it's just I've heard stories about this ship."
"The majority of ships in Starfleet develop 'stories' about them," Lieutenant T'Vrell pointed out as she brought the ship's operations console online.
"Maybe, but people don't always die in them," Flores countered.
"I presume you're referring to what humans call 'ghost stories'," T'Vrell replied.
"Let me guess," Zarva added, "Something happened on this ship, someone died and their ghost still haunts the ship, right? Just like every other ghost story when you get down to the bulkheads of it."
Flores scoffed at her former-classmate, "You know why this ship had been decomissioned, right?"
"Sure, old age, just like most of the class," Zarva answered.
"If older Miranda and Excelsior-class ships could be refitted and stay in service, why couldn't a Constellation-class ship?" Flores asked rhetorically, "Because they used the Malone as the test-bed for refitting the class and it nearly destroyed the ship."
"It doesn't look destroyed," Lieutenant Kolez spoke up from where he was running checks on the tactical console.
"Nearly destroyed the ship," Flores repeated, "It would have destroyed the ship if a crewman hadn't disobeyed the evacuation orders and stayed in Main Engineering trying to bring the system overloads back under control. He managed to save the ship, but the overloads caused containment systems to fail and radiation from the warp core killed him and rendered the ship contaminated for decades afterwards."
"Uh-huh, and then what happened?" Zarva replied, "No, wait, don't tell me... when the radiation finally decayed enough, Starfleet tried to recommission the ship, but people kept reporting a strange figure in the Engineering spaces, weird sounds, maybe even the smell of leaking plasma when nothing was wrong and it reached a point where no one was willing to serve on the Malone, so they decommissioned her again until now."
"Ahem," the ship's newly assigned commanding officer cleared his throat as he stepped out of the turbolift and onto the bridge, "I'd think, Lieutenant, that as a Starfleet officer, you'd be a little more open-minded about the unknown."
"The unknown out on the 'final frontier', sure," the Bolian chuckled, "The unknown out of campfire stories, I'll never understand what humans get out of those."
"Well, next time we actually get shore leave, I know where you're going," the Captain remarked, "But for now, I want you and T'Vrell to head down to Main Engineering and supervise the work down there."
"Yes, Commander," T'Vrell nodded as she left the Operations console and headed back towards the turbolift.
"Aye-aye, Captain," Zarva quipped as she joined the Vulcan in the turbolift, the doors shutting behind them.
---
"Malone to Fleet Yard Control, energizers primary and auxilary are working, disconnect external power sources."
"Acknowledged, Malone, no more mother's milk. Good luck and good sailing."
The Captain took a deep breath as his hands moved over the helm controls, "Let's see if I still remember how to fly one of these after being in the Center Seat the last few months... thrusters, full ahead... Clearing dry-dock in three, two, one... Control area clear in two, one..."
"So far, it looks like she still works," Flores quipped from the Operations console, "Now we just need to swing by Spacedock and pick up a crew."
The Captain glanced over at her and nodded, "Bridge to Engineering; how are we for impulse drive, Lieutenant?"
"Bridge, Engineering..." Zarva's voice responded over the intra-ship, "We're a little lower on deuterium than I'd like, but we should have enough to get us to Spacedock for a refuel. Have at it, Captain."
Even though the Engineer couldn't see the action, the Captain nodded as his hands began moving over the controls, "Engaging impulse, ahead one-quarter..."
The sudden sound of warning klaxons was quickly followed by Zarva's voice coming back over the intra-ship, "Bridge, disengage impulse! T'Vrell, override the hardware hierarchy and try and bring the emergency controls online!"
The Captain felt certain he probably hurt his fingers as he hit the controls for 'all stop' quick and hard, "Engineering, what's happening down there?"
"What's happening is some idiot at the Fleet Yards didn't pressure-test the system properly, Captain!" Zarva snapped back a response, "And now we're leaking plasma coolant!"
The Captain swore as he spun away from the console and jumped to his feet, "Flores, with me!"
The First Officer didn't respond, just followed the Captain at a run for the turbolift...
As the doors shut behind them, Kolez was left to mutter, "I guess I have the bridge..."
---
Compared to some of the classes of starship that could be found in Starfleet like the Odyssey-class or even the Galaxy-class, Constellation-class starships like the Malone were small enough to almost be carried like shuttles if the bigger ships had landing bays large enough to hold them. Despite that fact, when one was running from the bridge to Main Engineering, even with turbolifts, crossing eleven of the ship's fifteen decks was a fair amount of distance. When he and Flores reached Engineering, the Captain spat out a particularly vehement Nausicaan curse he had picked up at the sight of the emergency barriers down and smoke filling the room with none of his officers in sight.
"T'Vrell! Zarva!" He shouted.
"Computer, why haven't the damage control systems cleared this smoke?" Flores demanded.
"Those systems have not yet been brought back online," the ship's computer answered in its feminine monotone.
"Where's the manual controls?" Flores looked around.
"On the other side of that barrier," the Captain rumbled, "Along with a cloud of plasma coolant and probably two of our classmates..."
"Is there any way..." Flores was interrupted by the sights and sounds of smoke being ventilated, revealing T'Vrell collapsed on the floor and Zarva half-draped over a console as the emergency barrier rose.
"You take Zarva, I'll check on T'Vrell," the Captain ordered, the two of them moving forward to the downed officers.
Kneeling down, he carefully put his hand on the Vulcan's shoulder and shook it slightly to stir her.
"Commander?" T'Vrell responded groggily as she raised her head, "I believed you were on the bridge."
"I came running," the Captain answered, rising to his feet and extending a hand to help the science officer up. Across the room, Flores had revived Zarva and the two walked towards them.
"You were lucky," The Captain said, "Plasma coolant is lethal if you're exposed to it for more than a minute or two and you were both unconscious when we got here..."
"The coolant was vented, I believe that our lack of consciousness was due to oxygen deprivation by the smoke, Commander," T'Vrell observed.
"I'm glad you were able to vent the coolant before you passed out, then," The Captain informed her
"Captain... it wasn't us," Zarva shook her head, "We were unconscious before... what's that thing?"
The Bolian pointed past the Captain, causing everyone's gaze to follow the direction of her finger. At a nod from the Captain, T'Vrell turned on her heel to walk over to the console Zarva had indicated and carefully she picked up a small metal device that had been laying on top of the console.
"It's a Starfleet insignia," the Vulcan science officer pronounced slowly, before adding with a hint of amazement, "If memory serves, it's an enlisted crewman's insignia from a 2280-pattern uniform..."
No one had to say anything for facts to begin connecting themselves in the minds of those present.
"It appears someone had no desire for history to repeat itself," the Captain noted, looking around at the faces of his officers.
"Elisa..." Zarva started cautiously.
"Yeah?" The First Officer asked in the same suddenly-nervous tone.
"Is it too late to apologise for being so dismissive of your ghost stories earlier?"
"Well, you and T'Vrell need to go down to Sickbay to be checked out after your coolant exposure anyway," Flores remarked, trying to hide her discomfort with forced humor, "So what's one more reason to have them take a look at you?"
Probably a little longer than 1000 words, but I'm still happy with it.
@turbomagnus
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
Dead Dreams
“Captain’s log, U.S.S. Trafalgar, Admiral Revka commanding,” the slim purple humanoid spoke into the air on the Guardian’s vast bridge. “First Federation ship Vitreaus, listed lost on a science mission at the start of the Iconian War, has been discovered drifting without main power.” The admiral glanced up briefly, a loose sphere made of dimly glowing cubes, slowly drifting apart, without a trace of weapon damage. Like the elder Iconians, the First Federation had made the leap to where form and function were only tenuously connected.
“Life support is being maintained in central structure – ship is sending low-grade radio call, still decoding. Away team is preparing to board. Computer: save log and prepare to send,” Antonine ordered. Trafalgar chirped acknowledgement, but the admiral was already standing up – this was one of a dozen ships in the sector to be surveyed.
*********
A flare of light and they were aboard – all elaborate curves and equipment behind discrete draperies. And barely any sound – everyone was in EV suits, of course, but there wasn’t the vibration of an active core, or even the faint hum of life support systems of a station.
“Feels dead,” Takerra, her XO and an Andorian, said. Everyone shifted and glared.
“Thank you Commander,” Antonine said politely, “But perhaps they’ve shifted the ventilation fans out of detection range.”
“Not with these antennae,” Takerra said, “Something killed this ship, Admiral.”
“How?” Antonine’s science officer, a brusque Klingon asked, “No antiproton traces or weapon damage on the outside, no radiation trails.”
Antonine ignored the argument for the moment. That looked like a helm control, given known size f the occupants then… “Here, I’ll show you the vents,” she said, pulling aside one of the curtains, and shrieked in surprise.
The wall was riddled with what almost looked like claw marks. Something had torn through duranium, hopefully with acid. If those were claws, it should have showed up on life sign detections from Earth Spacedock.
The crew moved – the other panels had also been damaged – in a variety of ways. One seemed to have been axed, several showed clear signs of being damaged with directed energy weapons. The only good sign, in Antonine’s opinion, was that her suit’s sensors showed a fresh breeze coming from the mangled vent.
“Weapons free – heavy stun,” she ordered, unslinging a heavy pulsewave weapon. A screech, a hum, anything would be helpful, but everything was silent, no beeps of consoles or hum of engines.
Suddenly a hailing frequency chirp, “Trafalgar here, Admiral – we’ve isolated the signal in its entirety and are beginning decoding,” reported her communications officer.
“Keep me informed,” Antonine said, “Ready a forensic team to come over – and scan again for life signs.”
“Aye sir,” the communication officer said, puzzled. After a moment, “Still no life signs – some extra energy flux near your location, Admiral. Possible a thermostat trip. From your tricorder bearing, forty degrees right, fifteen up, and twenty meters ahead.”
“Understood,” Antonine said, and in Starfleet’s finest, and occasionally most lethal tradition, she strode forward ahead of her bridge crew towards the unknown. She moved a curtain out of the way – a ragged hole seemed to have been cut through, and lights were ahead… but it was impossible to tell which direction the cut had been made.
“Cover me,” she ordered, as she started to climb.
“Sir? How-“ Takerra started. Antonine shook it off as she climbed into a small spherical room – a working room, apparently, with none of the draperies, or they’d been torn aside. Blast marks and claws were all headed toward… what looked like a blank viewscreen or porthole, with a few small controls next to it. And next to it, reaching, was what seemed to be a corpse.
Her communicator chimed, “Takerra to Revka – Admiral, what did you do?”
“What?” Antonine asked.
“There wasn’t a hole there – you climbed into solid metal,” the Andorian reported. Antonine whirled, and behind her was merely bulkhead. She felt it, but there was no cut remaining around the edge.
“I have no idea,” she said, baffled. “Transporter room, maintain a lock on me – there’s still what may be a working console in this room. It looks like the ship captain was doing something, let me see….”
She brushed the control, and suddenly at the porthole there was light and –
Discontinuity
“Admiral? Admiral!” she heard, suddenly – and found herself braced against the wall, finger rigid on her weapon’s trigger, which was emitting a few sparks – the power cell completely depleted. Opposite her, there was simply scorch marks, the duranium gone, but some of the light remained.
“Trafalgar,” she started, then cleared her throat – it was dry, and she realized she’d been screaming. “Emergency beam out all personnel – lock quantum torpedoes on this location and fire as soon as we’re on board.”
“Admiral, you were out of contact for four minutes – what,” the communication officer asked.
“Get us out of here, full decontamination procedures – there’s something… they gave their lives – get us out of here and destroy this ship!” she ordered, harshly, then coughed, throat still raw.
No more argument came as her world dissolved into transporter effect. Shortly after, the light was overridden by the terrible glare of zero-point driven annihilation.
******************
Later, after an exhaustive series of tests had been cleared that she had not brought anything back with her, at least within the limits of Federation science, she and her bridge officers sat around one of Trafalgar’s conference tables. Vitreaus’s last transmission had been decoded, and was on repeat to the silent crew.
“DEAD GODS STILL DREAM! DEAD GODS STILL DREAM!”
Trafalgar continued through the void, to stitch together the remaining points of light of the Federation, against a dark that seemed all the colder, now.
@tremor3258 – in game.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Now, here's a different kind of fear. For sometimes the most paralyzing of fears aren't the grotesque, the sudden and iron clasp from behind...or the kind of unexplained that truly is unexplainable. Sometimes it's in what happens when the ordinary--the places, things, and people that fill in the landscapes of our everyday lives--elicit in us a dread that is so consuming not because we cannot understand them, but because of the depths to which we do understand them, and the fact that we often cannot control them.
And sometimes, too, what is surreal, what is horrifying, what is frightening, changes drastically depending on the eyes...or the photoreceptors...of the beholder.
(Oh...and I did go over the word limit, but hopefully it should not feel like an excessively long read.)
One Face for the World...
"Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind."
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
"Forgive me, I have but two faces:
One for the world, one for God--save me!"
--Nightwish, "The Poet and the Pendulum"
Two weeks ago...
It had been almost three weeks since the Devidian attack on Drozana Station and I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Being here in the Arboretum--in solitude, but surrounded by life--it should have been comforting. But my mind just wouldn't rest. It was bad enough that I shared a species with the Devidians, and even worse that they had refused my offer to help them live as I did, free of the need to hunt another sentient being ever again.
The reports from Dr. Sei were worrisome to say the least...especially when I remembered the contempt my biological kin had thrown at me for the mere suggestion of another, better way. The neural draining survivors from the assault on the Devidians weren't recovering as fast as they should have--too little progress, too many setbacks along the way--it felt like I was being teased. Tormented by dangling the lives of my crew before me. Of course if they were still somehow here, they'd know to avoid me, and they'd probably have sense enough to avoid Thraz as well; I could see them and he could sense them at range. I'd had Jiana discreetly scanning Sickbay every so often just in case...though maybe I was just being paranoid.
I hated it. I hated the commonality my biology gave me with them. I was nothing like them; whatever my physical form, I belonged to Earth, not Devidia. Yet I was everything like them. God forbid I should starve--would I have to make good on my resolution to end myself if that ever happened? Even if I had to take my own claws to my throat--
I looked down. My claws. I'd slipped right out of my human form without even noticing a thing!
You idiot, Alyosha, polnyy pridurak!
And it was right that second when I caught movement through my dorsal photoreceptors. Der'mo! I phased out of humanoid sight as fast as I could, telekinetically throttling my body across the room, away from...a Starfleet uniform--one of the Caitians--bozhe moi, I was fleeing one of my own crew. The chirp of a commbadge, the voice of a female Caitian summoning Security--she'd seen one of them, she'd seen a Devidian...
I forced myself, still in my native phase, through the ceiling, onto the deck above--thank God, an empty storeroom. As captain, I'd surely be getting a call of my own from Security soon. And without my commbadge docked in its interphasic repeater, the signal would never reach me when they did. And worse, the computer would report me as missing. I phased back in as fast as I could, shifting back to human form and breathing a deep sigh of...well, it wasn't relief.
The energy nodes beneath my skin flared invisibly with fear--charged, ready for more action. But this I couldn't fight--not if the one who saw me had also seen me shapeshift. And all of this because those other Devidians back on Drozana had gotten so deeply under my skin as to make me lose my form in a way I hadn't since I was a child. Let this be the last I hear about them in a long time! I thought angrily before I cursed my own carelessness once more.
That, at least, was better than the oppressive dread that still crept insidiously through the dark places in my mind.
Captain's Ready Room
Present day
All had come true with a vengeance.
After Chief Ruuim's sighting...of me...the other reports had started. Then there was the attack in the enlisted mess. The one where a stowaway hunting party killed one of my crew, and nearly took the lives of five others. And I almost drained myself to death trying to pull them all back from the brink. I'd spoken to all of the five since then--most for the better, one for the worse, but with them, I knew where I stood.
Not so with Ruuim. Thraz th'Valek had spoken with her during my recuperation--things had seemed settled--but now here she was in my ready room, quite literally sniffing around.
"Thank you for seeing me, sir," she said. But her tone sounded flat. Distracted. She seemed to be trying to keep it down, but I could still hear her quietly inhale once, twice through the nose, testing the air. True...it wouldn't be the first time I'd had that reaction from the keener-nosed species; so far no one had acted with alarm, but even with no sense of smell of my own to verify, logic told me I couldn't smell quite like a true human.
I'd heard...even tacitly allowed...the belowdecks rumors that I was slightly other--part-Betazoid, Deltan...El-Aurian--that one was a favorite, with my inclination to temporal mechanics. Those same rumors suggested I'd repudiated whatever it was and refused to speak of it thanks to my abandonment as an infant. But what if she, who might well have caught a whiff of that Devidian in the Arboretum, picked up on that scent again, here, with no one else to account for it but me?
"Not a problem, Chief," I replied. I sounded a lot calmer than I was. It helped for my expressions, my gestures not to be natural. Not to speak with normal vocal cords. But that didn't change what lay inside me. "What can I do for you?"
She narrowed her eyes slightly. I prayed that there had been too much interference from all of the plants in the Arboretum. Here, only one tiny plant might even slightly take the edge off of...whatever a Devidian smells like. Then she looked back at me. "I am...concerned, sir." I nodded for her to go ahead. "That we harbored them for three weeks. I don't disclaim my own part in it, Captain..."
I shook my head. "If you're worried how it reflects on you," I assured her, "Don't. You did the right thing, Chief. You gave us what we needed--the evidence for the yellow alert. Lives were saved because of that."
It felt like a distraction tactic. A selfish survival technique. And in a sense it was. And yet I meant it too. People had started paying attention right when they began feeling badly. That had given the Science and Security teams what they needed to lock in on all of them. Except the one who had been their captain all along. God, it felt so disingenuous.
Damn it...I didn't know what I felt.
Ruuim bared a single tooth; one ear flicked back. Disgust, I thought. But at what? "That's good to know, sir. But I am concerned about some of the things we seem to have missed. I don't understand why the coordination between Security and Science occurred so late after dealing with an enemy that we knew could do these kinds of things. I took this to Lieutenant ch'Sherrin first, but he was as much in the dark about it as I was. We had people with tricorders scanning the suspected infestations--" I bit my shapeshifted tongue. Ouch. "But no Level One search with shipwide sensors until the report from the e-club.
"This...isn't an accusation, sir..." But the way her tail flicked from side to side behind her--methodically, not the nervous twitch I'd seen from my colleague Captain Rraeit--what kind of caution was it, exactly? A subtler display of nerves? Or a predator teasing out her prey? "It's a potential...remediation opportunity, if I may be so bold."
I picked up my mug, trying not to allow too much urgency in the motion, and brought it to my shapeshifted lips, allowing the water to wet them but hardly more than that; I could fake the appearance, but I couldn't actually swallow anything. I set the mug down, nodding as I did.
"I've been thinking about it since the attack," I replied. And that was the truth. Just as the accusing Karjalainen had pointed out--the crewman who had reacted with such hostility to the truth of me that Admiral ch'Harrell and I had just worked his transfer to another ship in the fleet--there was a reason shipwide temporophasic scans weren't standard operating procedure aboard the Chin'toka, and hadn't been even after Drozana. And it weighed on me more than Chief Ruuim could ever imagine. "I know Commander th'Valek has been, too. I will be facilitating meetings between the two departments over the next few weeks to make a thorough review of lessons learned and develop discrete, actionable plans for corrections where necessary."
Don't hide from her. That just screams 'guilt.'
"Lieutenant ch'Sherrin will represent Security, but I'd like you along as well, since you were a direct eyewitness."
She nodded. That seemed to help--but there was one question that hadn't answered. She asked it. "But for now...Captain, can you tell me right now that they're all gone?" She shuddered, eyes darting from place to place around her when in fact the source of her terror sat straight across from her.
"Yes...I can. We got them all--the threat has been neutralized."
And from where she was sitting, if she found out the truth I would not simply have allowed her to believe that I really was human, as I did with the others. As she would see it, I had just outright lied to her face. Not about the threat--that much was over--but the idea that there were no more Devidians aboard this ship. It was for the best...for myself, for my crew, for the greater unit I served as a Starfleet officer. But I still felt the accusing twinge inside of me with every syllable of it.
She licked her lips. Her tail twitched just a bit faster. "With respect...are you sure?" The fur around her neck rose for less than a second. Was she just--understandably--uneasy after the ghostly creature she had witnessed? Or was this the method of Porfiry Petrovich she employed, testing me as one who knew I was guilty like Raskolnikov the murderer, telegraphing to me that she knew I knew it, wringing my heart with anxiety until I burst from the intolerable need to confess?
I nodded once more. "I am." Ruuim seemed to relax a bit, and with that, I spared a glance at the calendar on my terminal. "The meeting invites will go out by the end of the day--the first one for tomorrow at 0900 hours."
"Yes, sir," Ruuim replied with a salute.
I allowed myself a small smile. "Was there anything else?"
She shook her head. "That will be all, Captain." Did I hear her test the scent of the air once more?
"Then you're free to go. If there is anything else I can do for you or Lieutenant ch'Sherrin, I look forward to hearing it."
With that, the Caitian exited the ready room.
Once the door had shut all the way, I leaned back, closed my shapeshifted eyes and switched off all of my photoreceptors, and released a tiny sound--an inhuman sound, too high-pitched for the human voice I was supposed to have--my natural equivalent of a weary groan. The tension started to fade from my body, but not all of it. I knew Chief Ruuim had every right to be terrified of the Devidian hunting party, of those depraved and inscrutable murderers. Yet I wondered: if she knew the truth, could she ever imagine that I despised them every bit as much as she did? And that she--a normal Starfleet crewmember--had elicited the same sort of dread in me that she had no doubt felt when she beheld that terrible spectre in the Arboretum? That just as she'd feared then that the creature held all the power, my own emotions towards her neared a perfect mirror?
And would she imagine that I, the one who had held the form then of the remorseless killers, could be haunted by reproachful spectres of my own conscience?
Gospodi pomilui menya.
I prayed, hardly sure what I should pray for. Then I made the Sign of the Cross. The inner darkness did not relent--yet I had to trust, to endure. I had to.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Disclaimer: My entry will be a little longer one, but still short enough and easy to read I think. That's the reason I'll post it in two parts. Thank you for your consideration of this story for entering contest
Captain's log, stardate 76832.788: It has passed almost six days since USS Dragonstar has been sent in search for USS Triton - a Luna class starship that was sent on scientific mission to further explore distant parts of Beta quadrant, far beyond the borders of both Klingon Empire and a former Romulan Star Empire. Our specific area of search was at first narrowed down to an area of space with multiple destroyed star systems. That is also the area of where Triton was sent on her mission. However, so far we haven't managed to find a slightest trace of them. I wonder what has happened to them and will we find them at all, because Starfleet may pull the plug on the research at anytime now. Nevertheless, my crew and I are not willing to give up that easily despite that we've been unsuccessful so far.
Computer, end and save recording. - Sirius said that after a moment of thinking if he needs anything to add and only a few seconds later as he was pouring to himself a glass of Jagermeister, his commbadge chirped and a somewhat deeper feminine voice could be heard over it: Captain Verax, you are needed on the bridge as soon as possible. It looks like we have found the Triton. They are only 2 light years away from our position.
Finally! - he thought before replying to her: Alright, set an intercept course and go to maximum warp. I'll be on the bridge in a minute.
Yes, sir. - Woman acknowledged his commands and ended communication. Soon after, a modified Sovereign class starship accelerated to warp and disappeared in bright blue flash.
Meanwhile Sirius quickly stood up from the chair he's been sitting in, emptied his glass and stormed out from his quarters towards the nearest turbolift.
Captain on the bridge! - An ensign that was checking MSD console exclaimed loudly when he saw a human-cardassian hybrid as he walked out from the turbolift.
Sirius just responded to it with a brief smile: At ease ensign.
Then as he walked over to his chair, he glanced towards the Andorian female with a long silvery hair that has been seated right next to him and asked her: So why couldn't we detect them earlier, number one?
We are not sure, but our science officer thinks it is because of the all radiation from those collapsed stars. - Andorian answered to him with uncertainty.
Right after she said that, a red haired female with several implants on her face, which has been sitting in front of them right behind the viewscreen, turned towards them and added: Mrs. Coln is correct; a high concentration of radioactive particles is disrupting functionality of our long range sensors.
Can't you boost power of sensors? - Sirius asked with puzzled expression on his face, and his reply almost came instantly after from a man that was sitting behind him: They are already boosted to the maximum, sir.
A few minutes of silence took place until USS Dragonstar - a Sovereign class starship arrived to the designated coordinates. As soon as ship decelerated to first to impulse speed and then finally came to a full stop, everyone on the bridge could see Luna class starship at the viewscreen. However, the sight in front of them wasn't an expected one, as the ship looked completely adrift and heavily damaged. Besides that, there were several large holes across her hull.
What the hell happened to them?! - Sirius obvious reaction to the sights before him revealed his puzzlement and which has been also present in the rest of the people on bridge. As soon as he recovered from that initial shock, Sirius started issuing orders: Yellow alert, shields up! Mr. Lukin, try to hail them. - he said to a young Cardassian at the helm console and then he addressed red-haired woman with implants that was sitting right next to the mentioned Cardassian officer: Mrs. Miyazaki, I want a full scan of that ship.
Both of them acknowledged Sirius' orders and started typing different sets of commands in their consoles.
They are not responding, sir. - Cardassian exclaimed after making several attempts to establish a contact with Triton.
Damn it! That doesn't sound good at all. - Sirius sighed in desperation.
A minute later, red-haired woman turned towards him and informed them about the ship's situation: I have completed scanning. This ship is in worse shape than we originally thought. She has multiple hull breaches, almost no power and her life support is on minimum. And the most troubling thing of all is that there are no life signs from her crew and it also appers that none of the escape pods were launched too. However, there are several life signs of unknown origin.
Wait, are you sure about that? Are you telling us that there is not even a single life sign from Triton's crew out of 350 people?! - Andorian first officer was shocked by this revelation.
Unfortunately yes, that is correct. - She replied to her with uneasy voice.
In that case, we must find out what happened to them. - Sirius said decisively after a brief moment of silence. Mrs. Miyazaki, can you tell us something more about those unknown life signs? - He asked her somewhat reluctantly.
I will try. - She answered him right away while looking at her console for upcoming information. There are 31 of them in total and most of them are occupying Triton's key areas. Also, you should be aware that they appear to quite large given the size of their life sign signatures.
I see... - Sirius already felt nervous and was getting more and more so as Scarlett revealed him new information about unknown beings occupying the vessel. Alright, Mrs. Coln, assemble an away team and I'll be joining you shortly. - As he said that, Sirius left the bridge by entering one of the nearest turbolifts.
You heard the captain! K'mpok and Miyazaki, you are coming with me. - She ordered them before turning towards young brunette Trill woman at tactical station: Mrs. Ozla, the bridge is yours.
Everyone acknowledged her orders and then the trio of officers left the bridge too. Only a few minutes later an away team consisting of ten people including captain Verax, his Andorian first officer, Klingon security officer and liberated Borg human science officer gathered in one of their transporter rooms. They were all heavily armed with different weapons and protected by personal armor and shields. Sirius was carrying his phaser assault rifle as his primary weapon and two phaser guns as his secondary weapons. XO Lissan Coln took her Andorian sniper rifle and also a pair Andorian phaser guns. Scarlett Miyazaki was equipped with plasma flamethrower and antiproton compression pistol, while Klingon Security chief Torak K'mpok took heavy disruptor minigun, his unique made bat'leth and a dk'tagh. All of them except K’mpok have also carried a standard Starfleet issue combat knives.
Before they stepped on the transporter platform, Sirius addressed them: Alright, I just checked Triton's blueprints and found us a place not too far from the bridge where we can teleport safely.
And where is that exactly, sir? - Scarlett asked him curiously.
It is in one of the corridors only three decks below. The turbolift to deck with the bridge should be nearby. It shouldn't take us more than ten minutes or so to get there. - He explained to them quickly and then asked: Alright, is everyone ready?
Most of them just nodded to him and stepped on the platform, but K'mpok chosen to express his readiness aloud: Qa'pla captain!
Sirius just actuated a brief smile to him and as soon as they were all on the platform he given the final order to a man behind transportation console: Energize!
To be continued...
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A bright azure light from teleporter has filled the dark corridor of Luna class starship USS Triton and soon after twenty various Starfleet officers materialized in it. They noticed immediately lack of lighting in the ship so they all turned on their flashlights which were mounted on their weapons. As they managed to illuminate the dark corridor, Dragonstar's officers were confronted with horrible and disgusting scenery which left them in serious shock for several seconds.
In the name of Khaless! What kind of animals could do something like this?! - Even the Klingon chief of security stared in disbelief at sight before them.
Meanwhile Scarlett and several other officers pulled out their tricoders and started scanning the surroundings.
Those poor officers, it looks like they've been torn apart. - Sirius said while looking at the bloody remains of Triton's crew.
Indeed, and unfortunately that is not all. - Scarlett said as new data appeared on her tricoder. I'm reading severe bite marks as well. They were eaten alive too. - She explained leaving everyone even more disgusted by that information, including herself too.
I suggest we hurry up then towards the bridge and find the logs about what exactly happened so that we can get off this ship as soon as possible. - Lissan wisely concluded.
Everyone agreed with her statement and quickly, but carefully they started moving towards the nearest turbolift. However, a second as they passed one of the corridor intersections, something with glowing yellow eyes jumped from the shadow and managed to grab one younger male human security officer and pull him into the darkness. Only a loud and painful screaming could be heard afterwards and other Dragonstar's officers couldn't do nothing for a poor man whose blood got splattered all over the adjacent corridor.
Being frightened by the event, Sirius ordered everyone to run, but the unknown creature quickly followed after them. As they were running towards the turbolift Dragonstar's officer simultaneously fired burst from their weapons at a pursuing monster, but they mostly missed it. Their accuracy was bad due to shooting on the move and very bad lighting of the corridor.
We are almost there! - Sirius yelled when he saw a turbolift door in front of him.
Hearing that, Lissan added: Good, I just hope that it is still functional.
Yeah, me too... - Sirius agreed with her and when he reached the door panel he tried to call the turbolift several times, but unfortunately without success. Damn it! It's no good. - He shouted and slammed the panel with his left fist.
Don't worry, sir. I'll send it towards our position manually. - Scarlett tried to comfort him while simultaneously taking of the panel and pulling out some optical wires. You will have to cover me until I fix it. - She informed him as the Dragonstar's officers gathered around them.
Very well, just hurry up! - He said to her and then took defensive position while ordering the rest of the team to do the same.
Meanwhile the creature got close enough to them so that they could see it with the help of their mounted flashlights. It was truly a sight from the nightmares. Strange creature had a dark red strong exoskeleton with at least six long legs ending with a sharp edged double tail with spiky ends, a large reptile-like head with four glowing yellow eyes, four arm like appendages with what appeared to be a large sharp looking pincers at their ends, and besides that it also had about a dozen sharp long tentacles on its back.
Seeing as it approached to them very fast, Sirius ordered everyone to fire at the creature with everything they have.
Numerous bursts and beams started flashing through entire length of the corridor with many of them hitting the relentless creature. Heavy fire from Dragonstar's away team tore off several tentacles, two pincer arms and most of the legs from the creature which was stopped dead in its tracks because of it. In order to finish it, K'mpok threw two photon grenades at the creature. The powerful explosion shook several decks and in process scattered creature's parts all over the place.
At that same moment, Scarlett managed to call the turbolift and its doors opened. I'm done. We should be able to get to the first deck now without much trouble. - She notified her fellow officers which lowered their weapons after they realized that creature is dead for good.
Well done, lieutenant. - Sirius commended her and then addressed the rest of his away team too: Everyone get in quick!
Once they were all inside, Scarlett closed the door and got the turbolift moving by disconnecting and reconnecting several optical wires which were hanging out from the opened control panel.
However, just a few seconds later, turbolift's ascent was abruptly stopped and it started shuddering heavily. Trying to figure out what's going on, Sirius and his officers were looking around them with puzzled expression of their faces and suddenly something broke through the floor and pulled Bajoran female security officer downwards, cutting of both of her legs at the same time. A blood splashed all over the place and frightened officers which immediately started shooting at the floor and now visible pincer-arms of one of the creatures. Meanwhile poor Bajoran screamed in pain as she was being torn apart.
Let's get out of here through the roof, now! - Sirius yelled and opened the lid on top of turbolift. They climbed on top of it as soon as they possibly could, and then resumed their ascent by the ladder, while a few moments later turbolift was violently pulled downwards finally crashing somewhere deep beneath them.
After few minutes of climbing, Dragonstar's away team made it to the first deck and started walking down the corridor which would lead them directly to Triton's bridge. Fortunately for them, monsters were not present in this corridor, but once they approached the doors of the bridge, Scarlett stopped them by saying: Be careful, I'm reading at least three of those things in there!
Well that's just great! - Sirius said sarcastically and then turned towards Lissan: Number One, what do you suggest?
Maybe we could throw several grenades in there? - She was more asking then suggesting while looking at the other simultaneously in hope someone else comes with a better recommendation.
Yes, but that way we might destroy the consoles that are containing more information about this whole situation. - K'mpok explained and Sirius added to that: And that would mean that all of this trouble has been for nothing, including those horrible deaths of our crew mates.
I agree, the failure is unacceptable. - Scarlett said right before she decided to voice her idea: So, while explosive grenades are out of the question we are still able to use the smoke ones without damaging any of the consoles, which may also give us enough cover in order to defeat those creatures.
That's not a bad idea, but it would be even better if we could somehow attack from at least two sides so that we can caught those things in a crossfire. - Lissan voiced her own opinion while she tried to remember if there were other means of getting to the bridge without going all the way to the other turbolifts.
Moment she said that, Sirius remember something when he was looking at 3d blueprints of Triton. I got it! There are two Jefferies tubes leading from this corridor straight to the bridge, and if some of us crawl through them, while others storm through the door, we can attack those things from three different sides. - Sirius explained to them somewhat relieved that they won't be relying only on smoke grenades.
Alright, I say we do it then. - Lissan was first to approve the plan they came up with.
Everyone else agreed with her too soon after and then Sirius split them in three groups: Ok, here's how we are going to do it. Miyazaki, Von Brown and Turoq - you are with me. We'll be storming through doors and throwing smoke grenades. Meanwhile K'mpok and Jansen will crawl through the left tube to the bridge. And finally, Coln and Soren will take the right tube. Any questions?
All at the same time responded to him: No sir!
Very well, now let's get on with it! - Sirius said aloud and then they've split according to instructions.
About five minutes later, Sirius and his team opened the door and started throwing smoke grenades through them while creatures were letting out loud screams from their large mouths filled with super-sharp teeth. When the bridge was almost completely filled with smoke, all three teams opened heavy fire in the directions of creatures' silhouettes.
One of the creatures got severely crippled as it tried to get close to K'mpok and lash out at him with its pincer-arms. With few swings of his bat'leth, K'mpok cut of three of those powerful appendages, leaving the last one severely damaged.
At almost the same time, second creature managed to send Turoq flying in one of the nearby bulkheads with its powerful double-tail. Poor Turoq was instantly killed as he broke the neck on mentioned bulkhead. However, that enraged Sirius, Scarlett and Von Brown enough so that they managed to blow off the creature's head which was now pacing around completely disoriented, and hitting with its numerous limbs everything but its enemies.
Third creature had equal amounts of fun with Lissan and Soren as it tried to kill them unsuccessfully. Lissan and Soren decided to get rid of creature's eyes first, and now as it was blinded they were able to avoid its attacks much easier. Soon after they’ve taken care of them, they shot off its legs too. Unfortunately monster managed to pull the Soren towards it with its extremely long tongue and then cut her to pieces with its remaining two pincer-arms. Finally, the monster has bitten off her head with its giant mouth. Terrified by that scene, Lissan screamed loudly, overcharged one of her phaser guns and managed to throw it inside the filthy mouth of the monster which was greedy enough to swallow it. A powerful explosion sent parts of the creature flying all over the place.
Meanwhile, the other two teams managed to put down remaining monsters by completely dismembering them.
The smoke from grenades also started to dissipate and now Sirius and his officers could finally see the seriousness of carnage which happened on Triton's bridge. It looked even worse than what they saw in the corridors.
Von Brown started feeling sick from all of it, and she threw up heavily, while Jansen followed him in the same manner.
Others haven't felt much easier, but they managed to refrain themselves from doing it. Only K'mpok had no such problems.
I believe we should find and copy those logs now before more of these creatures come looking for us. - Scarlett said that as she was trying to get permission from others to do so.
Yes, go ahead Mrs. Miyazaki. - Sirius responded to her while still looking around himself in disbelief along with others too.
Scarlett then approached one of the consoles with less blood stains and managed to download all the necessary information from it. I have the needed information sir. - She notified her captain about successful transfer of files.
Alright, let's get out of here, finally. - after he said that with a great relief, Sirius and his away team contacted Dragonstar, and they were almost instantly teleported back to their ship.
Several minutes later having returned to the bridge, Sirius and his bridge officers agreed that leaving the Triton as it is would be much too dangerous, and thus they decided to destroy the doomed ship.
Mrs. Ozla, target its warp core and fire at will. - Sirius simply ordered to her and soon after a volley of quantum torpedoes was launched from Dragonstar's aft tubes accompanied by heavy phaser fire which blasted Triton and remaining monsters on it into smithereens. But before doomed ship exploded into millions of debris, Sirius issued another order to Cardassian at Dragonstar's helm console: Mr. Lukin, set a course back to Federation space. Maximum quantum-slipstream speed, engage!
Just a few seconds later USS Dragonstar disappeared in a swirling bright blue tunnel, leaving nothing but space debris after her.
Ok, that's it! Hope you'll like my story and that it will be scary enough! And once again, I apologize about the story length, but like the fellow player from above (@messahla), I can also got bit carried away when inspiration hits me. Hope you won't mind
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Thank you all for taking the time to write and submitting your stories!
Just a reminder that the contest ends this Saturday (Oct 31st, 12pm UTC) and you may edit your submissions up to this time.
If you have something that you're still tweaking (but haven't posted yet) feel free to post your work in progress, so you don't accidentally miss having something entered for this competition and the temporal draw at the deadline.
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
@jasonyeefong
Rest, there is nothing to fear
You are home, with everyone you hold so dear
An asteroid streaks across the naked night sky
Your eyes begin to shut slowly, with your spouse at your side
Adrift in your dream you remember your beginning
The pleasantness of farming was ever so fitting
You remember that first time you shared that bottle of Romulan ale
You were so drunk, it was amazing that you lived to tell the tale
That bottle you shared with that special friend
That love bonded you together till the very end
Let nothing take away this bond, as you must
Even when the home world is now just dust
Dust paralyzed in the cold silence of space
The silence
You after remembering what happened to your people.
Conspiracies say it was with a purpose.
But how can anyone be so evil?
If so, will the truth ever reach the surface?
You can imagine the shrieks and screams as the their doom arrived
It came at such a sudden surprise
The dream is suddenly becoming a nightmare
It was too much for you to bear
You awake,
But you still hear the screaming
Pinch me, I still must be dreaming
A flash of green light struck your house
You hear the cry for help from your spouse
You plead to yourself, “please let this be a dream”
This must not be what it seems
You see you one and only beloved partner be taken away
With a flying tentacle like monster wrapping around their mouth and waist
Just like the bird of prey
They attacked with very great haste
You feel you heart sink to your stomach,
You look out to the sky as the green light and muffled screams fade in the distance
Then, it was silent
You rush to center of town
You look to see if anyone is around
Nothing but silence
You tried the local coms array, distress beacon, and even firing the emergency flare into the sky
Nothing but silence
All that you can hear is the beating of your own heart
You feel as if you were falling apart
But then at the side of your ear
There is something lurking near
You once again hear that mechanical drone
You duck behind a nearby bush in a prone
As you watch silently the green light moved
And if it finds you, it will certainly be your doom
You feel the blood pulsing through your veins
You tremble as if you were in pain
Your hands started to jitter
As your sweat covers your face like glitter
Then the light seemed to fade
And the darkness settled back in
Nothing but silence
Just when you think the coast is clear
The green light reappears
Then you feel the sudden rush of fear
The end is near
You try to get up and run, but your foot entangled
You stare at the mechanical floating drone with that one green eye
As it now pulls you closer as you struggle and you are strangled
Then with a tear in your eye, you wishing that you won’t have to die
You are suddenly lifted from the ground and shot into the sky
You see your town shrink in the distance, and you say your good byes
Suspended in the sky you see a large dark triangular silhouette with glowing green trim
Surrounded by a horde of more faceless tentacle creatures made your situation very grim
You enter the belly of the beast
The indescribable shrieks and wails made you worry that these creatures were ready to feast
Though the shielded barrier you pass
The atmosphere is of a noxious gas!
You pass out
Nothing but silence
You awake feeling sick to your stomach and covered in fluid
The place reeks like raw sewage
You are strapped to a table, naked and afraid
And as a biomechanical machine activates, you just begin to pray
A flash of green light penetrates though you like a blade
You wish for Starfleet to arrive so you can be saved
The device shuts off leaving you sore
This must be the Borg
But then a mushroom headed figure creeps into the room
Again one green eye and mechanical tools for hands
You know that it is going to be all over soon
Suddenly the table lifts up and pulls you into a tube
The hatch door closes and fluids begin to rush in
You hold your breath expecting to hear resistance is futile
But nothing, nothing but silence
Now you are completely immersed into this fluid
And through the transparent hatch door you see the figure standing before you
A pale grey skinned face with eyes as black as the void itself
It has a mechanical attachment protruding through side of its head
It looks like nothing you have seen before
You look closer in its eyes
You feel as if it is telling you that you are going to die
The tube begins to electrify causing you to bleed
You see dark floating objects being added that look like seeds
Flashing images suddenly flows through your mind
Showing all of your life events throughout time
As you stare into the eyes of the pale mushroom headed figure
It shows you images that you drew of your house
But the only one who could know of this was your spouse
You struggle to hold your breath any longer
Your lungs collapse, and the fluid rushes in
Rest, there is nothing to fear
You are actually still home, with everyone you hold so dear
You begin to slip into a dream from the darkness of the void
Nothing but silence
Stay spooky my friends! ^_^
The goal is to have the prizes sent out on November 1st.
I hope we'll be able to post the announcement the of the winners the same day, but I want to have something written regarding the entries with this announcement so it may lag a little.
Are screenshots and writing competing head to head, or are there separate prize packs for the writing and the screenshots?
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
The Temporal ship bundle is a random draw from entries in both competitions.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
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"The Hour of the Wolf is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful."
Prologue...
I drift in the void
Eternally on the verge of drawing breath, but unable to, the urgency builds
I have worn skin for too long
No, not too long, for that is how my kind survives, but for so long -- so long that to not feel the flesh inhale is disconcerting...
Vibrations resonate and I become aware, mere moments before the first hints of nourishment emanate, and for the first time in a long time, I sense prey.
Moving through the void, but constrained.
From my time in my previous hosts, especially the one called Scott, I understand that this is a vessel, a star-ship, and within it, the flesh, the weak, the prey, reside.
From my acquired knowledge, I understand that this ship is more complex than the one I last inhabited. More complex, but more versatile... More open to manipulation...
The vibrations of motion cease, and I move towards. To possess, to terrorise, to feed...
USS Endeavour, 2387...
"Now reading full-stop, Captain," Ensign Tuan Neena, usually the gamma-shift navigator, reported from the conn.
"Very good, Ensign," Fleet Captain Marcus Kane replied, his eyes fixed on the swirling, iridescent colors of the Calypso Cascade which filled the viewscreen. "Miss Dallas, are probes ready for launch?"
"Aye, Captain," Lieutenant Saffron Dallas responded crisply from ops, glancing momentarily at her console. "Ready to launch on your order."
"Initiate launch sequence," Marcus said, before rising from the command chair and tugging on the waist of his jacket before begining to walk toward his readyroom.
"Captain," Neena suddenly called out. "Sensors momentarily picked up a type of ionic motion off the port bow."
"Can you be more specific, Ensign?" Marcus inquired, moving to stand behind her.
The Bajoran girl frowned in frustration and shook her head.
"It was only a fleeting sensor contact, Captain, less than an eighth of a second in duration, and possibly phase-shifting," she reported. "I'm not picking up any further corresponding readings."
"Could it have been ionic reflection or particle decay from the Cascade?" Marcus suggested.
"Possibly, I'm sorry, Captain," Neena admitted, before getting to her feet and offering, "I'll begin a level one diagnostic of the lateral sensor array to rule out system error."
Marcus nodded, and as the navigator headed toward the nearest turbolift, he turned to his chief of security, Lieutenant Commander Roger Hunt, who sat at tactical. "Go to yellow alert," he instructed. "Just in case..."
Amanda Palmer walked across the campus of Windsor College, her hands thrust deep into the pockets of her, or rather, Sidney Prescott's, leather jacket. Beside her, Drew Mason looked handsome and presentable wearing the khakis and blue button-down shirt of Derek Feldman. As they approached the police cruiser, she considered that when the Endeavour returned to Earth, following it's assignment to map the Calypso Cascade, she could take him to Vegas to meet her mother and sister.
"So, I'd better go..." she said, following the dictates of the plot.
"I'll still be here when you get back," Drew replied as she got into the car.
As the car pulled away, a voice shouted out:
"Hey, you! Prepare to die, you gave up your letters!"
Turning, Drew saw a group of robed figures run towards him, before he was over-powered and carried away
As Neena headed down the corridor on deck eleven toward the maintenance support center, she thought she could hear a shuffling noise, almost like muffled footsteps. She turned, to see only an empty corridor behind her. With a frown, she shrugged and continued toward her destination. Passing an intersection, she heard the noise again. She peered down the other corridors, but saw no one else nearby.
"Hello?" she called out, before looking behind her again.
Receiving no reply, she turned back and gave a cry of surprise, finding her path blocked by a ragged black figure.
The figure was at least ten centimetres taller than Neena's not-inconsiderable one point seven three meters, and clad in a hooded, frayed black robe. It's face was covered by a stylised white mask, with massively distorted eyes and mouth, resembling a screaming wraith. Legs clad in heavy black pants and bulky boots extended from the tattered hem of the robe. Neena had just begun to think about reaching for her comm-badge, when she saw the hunting knife clutched in the figure's right hand. Long, and wickedly curved, it gleamed in the light of the corridor. As she began to react, the figure leapt forwards, an explosion of movement, the tattered robe fluttering like the ragged break of a ship's sails.
Beginning to run for the turbolift, in her panic, Neena barely had the presence of mind to slap her comm-badge, and instinctively, she screamed, "Captain! Help!"
At first, Marcus barely recognised the panicked ensign's voice, which came ragged as if she was running.
"Ensign, what's wrong? Do yo-"
"They've got a knife!"
"Who h-"
"They've... No! Let me go!" Marcus unconsciously rose from the command chair as the stunned bridge crew sat frozen at their positions, looking away from their consoles as they heard what sounded like a struggle. "Get off! Please help me, Captain! Let me - aaaaaaaaarrrrgh!!!"
"Where is she?" Marcus demanded, darting for the turbolift as the high-pitched scream howled from the intercom, checking the setting on his Type II phaser as he ran.
"Deck eleven," Roger confirmed, instinctively following his captain rather than formally turning his console over to a relief officer. "I have a security detail inbound."
Before the turbolift doors could close, Marcus looked across to his first officer, Commander Jedda Tobin, who sat, wide-eyed and shocked at communications. "Jedda, lock down deck eleven," he snapped. "You have the bridge."
Ensigns Ned Lennox and Romax'tansky ch'Ehra ran along the corridor towards the source of the screams.
The crouching figure looked round from the crumpled figure beneath, no discernible emotion on the gaping maw of the mask, blood-soaked blade projecting from the bottom of its fist, before leaping toward the incoming officers.
Raising his phaser, Max fired, but the figure's motion caused his aim to miss, while, eschewing his phaser, Ned dived forwards to tackle the figure.
Kicking out ferociously and powerfully, the figure drove the Human security officer back against the wall of the corridor, before coming smoothly to its feet, lunging forwards, and sinking the hunting knife into Ned's stomach, before whirling in place and launching towards Max.
Firing again, the young Andorian's beam hit its mark, and the figure seemed to crumple, collapsing in on itself, before vanishing into nothingness. Holstering his phaser, Max knelt down, checking first the whimpering form of Neena, then looking across to where Ned sat in a heap, leaning against the wall, his hands clamped to the wound in his abdomen, then he hit his comm-badge.
"ch'Ehra to Hunt -- Confirming assaults on deck eleven!" he reported. "Ensign Tuan is critically injured, Ensign Lennox has been incapa-"
"Max! Behind you!"
He turned at Ned's shout, just in time to see the figure slicing the knife down towards him.
Taking in the scene as he sprinted around the corner, Marcus dropped to a knee by his wounded officers.
"I tried to get another shot off, Sir, but he escaped down the corridor," Max reported, clutching his arm to his chest, his voice a tense whisper. "I think he's been disarmed..." He glanced down, and Marcus followed his gaze, seeing a wicked hunting knife jammed through the young Andorian's forearm. "There was something else, Captain; I think they were teleporting, or maybe phasing... I'm sorry, Sir, it all happened so fast, I couldn't tell, but something just ...wasn't right..."
Reaching out, Marcus put a reassuring hand on Max's shoulder and nodded, "Good work, Ensign," he praised, before standing and looking across to Roger, who had taken a medkit from the storage locker and begun to stabilise Neena's condition before she could bleed out further from the stab-wounds. "I want this TRIBBLE caught," he snapped. "Now."
On the bridge, Jedda leaned over the shoulder of strategic operations officer, Lieutenant Anthony Polizzi while he cross-checked the sensor returns Saffron sent him from Ops. After a moment, she tapped her comm-badge.
"Captain, internal sensors aren't detecting any unauthorised presences anywhere on the ship," Jedda reported. "All crew members are reading as accounted for at designated assignments or quarters."
"Recalibrate internal sensors, Jedda," Marcus instructed. "Wipe any externally updated protocols, restore to initial defaults, run a complete scan of the ship again, including a multi-phasic sweep.
"Ensign ch'Ehra reported the assailant as possibly using transporter or phasing technology, and Ensign Tuan's anomalous reading showed signs of phase-shifting," he observed. "Residual particles of an energy signature should be detected, but we need to know our protocols are uncompromized and providing accurate returns."
After a moment, Polizzi looked round at Jedda and shook his head.
"Nothing, Commander," he reported. "All scans returning negative, all crew members accounted f- standby..."
"What do you have, Tony?" Marcus' voice demanded.
"Nothing like we've been considering, Sir," Polizzi replied. "At least, not in the sense of a biological intruder... The system logs are showing an anomalous ionic signature in the holoprojectors on deck eleven. We might be seeing program bleed-through from one of the holodecks into the other projection system."
"We can shut down the holodecks..." Jedda began.
"But if a stray program is somehow off the grid, it's likely being supported and maintained by the local subsystems, shutting down the holodecks would be futile," Polizzi realized.
Jedda nodded, and brushed her bobbed hair back behind her ear. An idea came to her.
"We can disable the holoprojectors themselves, Captain," she suggested. "Create a power-surge in the system and let it blow every projector on the ship."
"Like using explosives to extinguish a fire," Marcus' voice concurred. "It's an unpredictable strategy, and I don't even want to think of the damage it may cause, but as long as this rogue program is loose, people's lives're at stake... Do it."
Jedda nodded, forgetting that the captain could not see the gesture. "Aye, Sir."
I drift through the ship's systems, almost organic compared to those I had inhabited before, jumping from cluster to cluster, while my senses extend for my target.
The Bajoran wench had cried out for her captain, and what a feast he would make...
But first, I have to break him, to make him endure that which I can sense he fears the most, only then will he become worthy prey...
I home in on the loneliness which emanates like a beacon, assuming a holoform once more.
Cameron Kane was roused from a light sleep by the crash of glass shattering.
"Marcus?" she called out, sitting up in bed.
There was no answer, and the Pentaxian's sensitive hearing picked up no other sounds of a disturbance, but she swung her legs off the side of the bed to investigate.
Inhumanly strong hands gripped Cameron's ankles from beneath the bed, yanked hard, sending her face first to the deck with a force that drove the wind from her lungs.
Twisting onto her back, she slammed a foot into the face of her assailant, but it was of no effect, and the ragged figure pounced forward, straddling her, and raising a curved knife high above its wraith-like face.
The blade came stabbing down.
Cameron caught the figure's wrist with both hands, barely stopping the blade before it bit into her chest, needing to use all her strength just to keep the glimmering tip away.
Swinging a leg, she generated enough momentum and leverage to topple her attacker to the deck, and jumped up, scrambling toward the living area on all fours, unconsciously digging her claws into the carpet to gain additional purchase and speed.
She had just passed the threshold, when the rooms around her exploded in eruptions of noise, heat and light.
Dazzled by the sudden brightness, Cameron continued to back away from the bedroom, until she felt her back slam up against the side of a desk.
Blinking furiously to clear her vision, she saw that she was once more alone, and the figure who had attacked her was gone.
Just a reminder that the competition ends in less than 12 hours.
If you haven't entered, but want to enter for the Elachi or Temporal ships, now is a good time to do so.
For reference, that's 7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT.
(Also for reference for the US and Canada: don't forget to set your clocks back before you go to bed and claim your free extra hour of sleep tonight!)
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Nah, this means we can technically get an extra hour of STO in and not lose any sleep time either...
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
By> @Carina_Ragazza
It was the night I had been training for nearly 2 years, my Sensei setup a series of final tests for me to complete under both certain circumstances as well as a very unfair time limit. I had dressed for the part, in my full ceremonial Ninjutsu outfit. I still only carried a wooden sword, after I would complete this test I would then earn my sword. I applied my mask and took to the back woods where I was asked to find my first marker. It had been more then just a strait run sprint, I was forced to watch out for traps that would ether set off an alarm or blast me in paintball suds. My Sensei would be watching me, from where I would not know, but if I had been spotted and a light shined on me I would instantly fail this test.
I had spotted 2 traps, but slipped past them gracefully. The wind slightly picked up making the trees to rustle, I laid low for a moment to catch my breath and control my breathing should someone be close and my locaton be made known. I peerd around, the moonlight shined down from a partially clear sky, allowing for shadows to play tricks upon me as they gave the illusion of movement or outlines of people.The nocturnal creatures of the woods could be heard all around me, allowing me a moment of comfort knowing if someone was close, they would grow silent.
Another quick look around my environment to make sure no one was around and I began to sprint back towards my first marker. As I approached the location, I could hear flies buzzing. I stopped and looked around, one of the things our training taught was to notice everything around us in full detail. I peered from a distance and I noticed a shape semi illuminated from the limited light. There was no odor, what ever it was had not been there for very long. I looked around the area, then stepped out to investigate. I seen what looked like a crumpled body. Flies buzzing around where the head should have been, over a fresh red liquid still dripping from the hood of this persons outfit. I gasped in horror, ready to scream! As I noticed the clothing, he was wearing overall's, rubber boots and blood stained gloves. His body laid there lifeless, missing it's head.
I began to tremble as this horrible sight. There where no tracks around him, none of the plant life had really been disturbed. My ten second assessment of the surrounding environment told me it wasn't right. No drag marks, no sign of him being dragged, and the only blood there had been had stopped dripping. There was only a minor pool of it. This was another trap, I knew that if I had moved him, I would have failed my test. So I slipped back into the shadows.
I reached my first marker, the tag was hanging on the tree. Someone was standing near the location armed with a flashlight and a radio. If he see's me I'll fail. How should I get around him? I doubled back, and eased next to the dummy corps I had left behind earlier, took out my Kunai and tied one end to a tag on the overalls, then hung the knife over a tree limb, attacking one of my dart to it to create a wind chime diversion. I then headed back to the first marker. A few minutes later I heard a small explosion, like a pop echo out. I knew that sound well, it was a paint grenade. "I figured that dummy was a trap!" I tried not to snicker at the thought of the one who fell into my trap!
The tingle began to ring out from a distance, the one watching the marker location. Must have heard it and began to walk in that location with his light looking for me. I slipped by and removed the flag form the tree careful not to make a sound as the flag also had a small key attacked to it. I then went back into the shadows. The second marker was close by, but time was almost up so I had to hurry!
An old building stood next to a large tree that had overtaken its foundation, the inside somewhere held the final marker. The building had for sure been trapped, the slight steam coming from the one of the loose boards told me someone was in side, watching for me. There was a tree blocking the moonlight near the far side of the house where I seen the steam emit from. I looked up, the tree itself could be ascended and used to mask my cover. I checked my watch, only 9 minutes left to take this marker and be clear. I used the sound of the tree to mask my cloth rubbing up against the tree, leaning my back against the base and a tree next to it to push me up. As I reached a safe distance, I took out a small rope and tied it to the limb, it was sturdy enough to hold me.
I slowly lowered myself down into the building, i could see a figure slightly moving around. he was looking through the boards out into the woods. I began to adjust my breathing to accommodate for stealth and lowered myself behind him, I untied the flag and began to raise myself back up. This was very hard. The pressure of using my body to it's full strain, while not making a sound was very stressful. I was scared he would shine a light on me. But I had to focus, If I panicked I would gaps for breath and he would hear me for sure!
I made it back up to the limb, but dropped my Kunai as reached the top. I hugged the branch, and remained still. He shined a light through he boards into the leaves where the crunch called out. The light went out. So I lowered myself back down quietly. Then checked my watch, about a minute left, "oh TRIBBLE!" I thought to myself. So I tried to hurry and reach my goal.
I seen 2 flags hanging above a lock box. Two key holes, one for each key on the flag of the markers I had obtained. Inside the display case held my Sword. I had reached my goal, but I noticed aside from the timer on it about to run out, it had wiring around one of the keyholes, not only that, the bugs had stopped making sounds. 5 seconds left, I wanted that sword so bad! But my training told me to run for it!! So I slipped back into the shadows and watched the timer run out. I said some unfriendly dialogue under my breath, I freak'n failed, it was over. I weighed on me so heavily!
Then I heard a voice call out my name, he was telling me to come out. I was about to cry, I was so close and I wanted that sword so badly. I was expecting my Sensei to tell me I failed, I began to tear up and those words I had dreaded to hear where about to break me. He walked up and lowered his mask with a smile. "You backed away, why?" He asked. I looked up at him wiping my eyes, "It didn't feel right." I told him. he laughed and then said, "you acted correctly. Reaching the goal doesn't always mean you will win. If you had inserted the key, it would have activated an alarm. You used discretion first and that is why you passed! You reached your goal in time, and recognized exposure would invalidate the purpose." I began to giggle with excitement as it began to sink in as to what he said. He took the keys and unlocked the box, a light shined outward and a small alarm activated, he then handed me my sword.
The though of that night still makes me tremble sometimes!
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!" -Lina Inverse
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!" -Lina Inverse